South Landing slipway, Flamborough

South Landing is a small, south-facing bay on the sheltered flank of Flamborough Head, backed by chalk cliffs. Sand and chalk pebble make up the beach, giving way at low water to chalk reef, boulders and broad shore platforms studded with rock pools. A medieval harbour, in use from 1323, still traces a line across the beach at low tide, alongside the remains of post-medieval fish hullies, chalk-built holding tanks, beyond the slipway.

The water here lies within the Flamborough Head Special Area of Conservation and its No Take Zone, on a stretch of sublittoral chalk reef recorded as among the most extensive in Britain. The headland has more cave habitat, and a wider range of it, than any other chalk site in the country; its largest caves run more than 50 metres from their entrances. The cliffs above form the UK's largest mainland seabird colony: a 2022 count recorded 166,576 breeding pairs, including gannet, kittiwake, razorbill, guillemot and puffin.

Rounding the head, the tide accelerates, with the flood setting south into Bridlington Bay and the ebb setting north, and a back eddy running close inshore late in the flood. Landmarks visible from the water include the chalk stacks and arches around the outer headland, and Flamborough Head Lighthouse on the clifftop, designed by Trinity House architect Samuel Wyatt and built by John Matson of Bridlington in 1806.